What's your favorite paint protection?

[ToddG]

Okay, if you missed it, I just learned something today in another thread. The short version of that is I was told (way back in the 80's) that silicone based wax products were no good for standard automotive paint and could actually do more harm than good over the long haul. Since then I've stayed away from them and always kinda felt sorry the people using these products. But being a car care nut, I also noted that these products never seemed to go away.

Mr. cctmobiledetail was kind enough to debunk this myth I had floating around in my head for all those years. Seems silicone based products are inert and cannot react with automotive paints as I was led to believe.

My choice for wax lately has been Mother's carnuba Paste (not liquid). I've used Meguiar's faithfully in the past as well. I believe that paste waxes stay on the car longer than the liquid waxes (carnuba based). I'm looking to try some of the synthetic stuff next (Liquid Glass has been getting some good endorsements on here).


I want to hear what you guys use, especially guys that use the synthetic stuff, and why you think it's the right/best product for your ride(s). And please give details/reasons why you endorse said products.

[d60tab]

I picked up my new Frontier this week and the dealer offered Simoniz System 5. It's a Teflon Surface Protector with a 5 year warranty. They have a treatment for both exterior and interior. It protects against acid rain, bird waste, insects, road tar, etc... The interior treatment is like a stain resistant application. The dealer told me that a guy had it applied to his Jeep Liberty and spilled coffee on his seat. They tried to get it out and couldn't. Simoniz paid to have his seat re-upholstered.
They were charging $500. I plan to have it applied when I recover from my new truck purchase.

They also offer regular car care products.

Simoniz E-Commerce Store: Your source for cleaning products for the home and car

[ToddG]

Yep heard of that. An associate of mine had it done to his 08 Ford CC King Rancher and I gave it a once over after they put it on. Their claims and warranty seem impressive. However it didn't stop the key scratch that some moronic person did to his truck from front to rear (neither would any product for that matter). Being it's a new truck he put in an insurance claim and had paint work done. He had to wait two weeks to have the Simoniz System applied over the new paint. So far he likes it and claims it helps retard tougher paint debris like bugs, tree sap etc. The jury is still out about Simoniz with him because the truck is only about two months old.

That system seems pretty expensive but I would think on any new vehicle with new paint it might be a good investment despite it's cost.

The purpose of my original post was for the DIY detail guys like myself for at home products and their reviews, but thanks for the info none the less.

[Mylt1]

i use 2 or 3 different waxes that have proven themselves to me. one, and my favorite is duragloss. i use there wash and wax and am very happy with it. usually beads water for several months. two is formula 113. this is another great wax but it is very hard to take off. goes on nice and smooth but buffing it off kills your arms. three is liquid glass not as long lasting as the duragloss but much easier to take off and leaves a nice deep shine. i have also used the mothers step waxes when i was racing. i usually used step 2 and 3 after using the clay bar and other than being time consuming was a damn fine wax as well. but it got old fast doing the clay bar then 2 different coats of wax.

[StormNISMO]

Well as I said in the other thread, I use Prima Epic(Prima Car Care: Premium Wax, Polish & More) for a paint sealant. I actually use quite a few of their products. I use Epic as a base sealant and and every other or so time I wash I use their Hydro product, which is a wax you spray on the car while wet and take it off while drying. Doing this, the Epic will last about 6 months or so. The synthetic sealant do wear away after a period of time but last much longer than a carnuba or natural wax.

The best part if using synthetic sealant is the fact that they are very dust(pollen) repellant, whereas, carnuba has oils in it that attract more dust. For example, I just washed my car and used Prima Hydro while drying it, it has been raining here in dusty Colorado for the past few days and the car still looks like I just washed it with hardly any water spots. Also, Prima stuff is kinda on the expensive side but if you use the products properly they will last a long time. A little bit goes a long way with most synthetics stuff I know of.

I have tried all kinds of Mothers, Meguires, Liquid Glass, Turtle Wax, etc. stuff in the past and none of them held up any where near the stuff I use now. Sorry if this sounds like an endorsement but I've had a really great experience so far with all Prima stuff.

[cctmobiledetail]

Originally Posted by d60tab

I picked up my new Frontier this week and the dealer offered Simoniz System 5. It's a Teflon Surface Protector with a 5 year warranty. They have a treatment for both exterior and interior. It protects against acid rain, bird waste, insects, road tar, etc... The interior treatment is like a stain resistant application. The dealer told me that a guy had it applied to his Jeep Liberty and spilled coffee on his seat. They tried to get it out and couldn't. Simoniz paid to have his seat re-upholstered.
They were charging $500. I plan to have it applied when I recover from my new truck purchase.

They also offer regular car care products.

Simoniz E-Commerce Store: Your source for cleaning products for the home and car

Don't buy the 5 year wax ...it's a scam !!! Nothing lasts for 5 years ! Most dealerships in the past have offered "Perma Plate" which is a teflon based polish. They also sell it for anywhere between $400 - $1500 , depending on what kind of car you buy ; a corolla or a AMG...no difference except for if your buying a more expensive car , you can afford to pay more for the same stuff. "Perma Plate" , like I said before is a teflon based wax/polish similar to your Simoniz. People get that word teflon in their mind and they think that this stuff will protect their cars like teflon on a frying pan. Teflon , is a commercial name for PTFE which was originally designed by mistake by Dupont. It was a freak accident in the chemistry department of dupont , that after a spill of this and that PTFE was discovered. It's a great product for frying pans, etc. In fact in order to apply the teflon on the pan, they have to heat the pan to 1700 degrees, then they impregnate the pan with the PTFE/teflon. Now imagine if they heated your truck to 1700 degrees... it would melt ... fast ! The Simoniz or Permaplate wax has very little teflon in the polish and it's just not the same as what you think. The dealerships also give you a five year warranty , but please read the fine print of your 5 year contract. It goes something like this: " Customer must bring the vehicle back to the dealership every 6 months to have the coating reapplied or they void their 5 year warranty" Or they give you a kit that has cleaner and the "wax" and have you reapply the polish every 6 months......in any event, what their selling you for $500 is a 6 month polish !!! Like I said before it's a scam ... it's like buying a extra warranty for your TV ! It's a pure profit addon for the salesman. 99% of the people won't take advantage of the warranty , so like I said it's pure profit.I have nothing to gain by telling you this information. Just know that I have had to fix hundreds of cars that had the "5 year protection" on them, because their paint was in terrible condition !!!

As far as a long lasting sealant that you can buy in a store , I'd go with Either Klasse or Liquid Glass. Ofcourse my $400 a gallon polish is far superior to either of those, but it's very hard to get unless you know the "Chef" in the UK to get it.

[CRDLIBERTY]

One id like to try liquid glass $20 bucks. I highly recommend meguires nxt for new finishes including the boat! Perma Plate worked pretty good for me in salt region but was already on my beemer and jeep i bought used. German klass lookes intersting and few other fancy waxes. And the worst product to use da da da NU Finish sucks lol.

[ToddG]

Originally Posted by cctmobiledetail

Don't buy the 5 year wax ...it's a scam !!! Nothing lasts for 5 years ! Most dealerships in the past have offered "Perma Plate" which is a teflon based polish. They also sell it for anywhere between $400 - $1500 , depending on what kind of car you buy ; a corolla or a AMG...no difference except for if your buying a more expensive car , you can afford to pay more for the same stuff. "Perma Plate" , like I said before is a teflon based wax/polish similar to your Simoniz. People get that word teflon in their mind and they think that this stuff will protect their cars like teflon on a frying pan. Teflon , is a commercial name for PTFE which was originally designed by mistake by Dupont. It was a freak accident in the chemistry department of dupont , that after a spill of this and that PTFE was discovered. It's a great product for frying pans, etc. In fact in order to apply the teflon on the pan, they have to heat the pan to 1700 degrees, then they impregnate the pan with the PTFE/teflon. Now imagine if they heated your truck to 1700 degrees... it would melt ... fast ! The Simoniz or Permaplate wax has very little teflon in the polish and it's just not the same as what you think. The dealerships also give you a five year warranty , but please read the fine print of your 5 year contract. It goes something like this: " Customer must bring the vehicle back to the dealership every 6 months to have the coating reapplied or they void their 5 year warranty" Or they give you a kit that has cleaner and the "wax" and have you reapply the polish every 6 months......in any event, what their selling you for $500 is a 6 month polish !!! Like I said before it's a scam ... it's like buying a extra warranty for your TV ! It's a pure profit addon for the salesman. 99% of the people won't take advantage of the warranty , so like I said it's pure profit.I have nothing to gain by telling you this information. Just know that I have had to fix hundreds of cars that had the "5 year protection" on them, because their paint was in terrible condition !!!

As far as a long lasting sealant that you can buy in a store , I'd go with Either Klasse or Liquid Glass. Ofcourse my $400 a gallon polish is far superior to either of those, but it's very hard to get unless you know the "Chef" in the UK to get it.

I will pass this info on to my associate and see if he read the proverbial "fine print" about reapplication time frames. I actually have a Klasse product believe it or not. When I was shopping around at my favorite site for car detail products I threw it in the shopping cart for purchase. It sits on the shelf in my garage. I'll have to give it a try. And no, I don't own operate or have any affiliation with Autogeek. It just so happens that I ended up there a few years ago for my Porter cable polisher purchase because they had the best price, and now I keep going back.

[WeeHooker]

I had always been a traditional one step Wax type guy and several have served me well. ( Most notably, Mothers Gold Class) . Just this past week I tried the Klasse two part system for the first time. One coat of the All in One and then two coats of the Sealant Glaze. The process was no worse than traditional wax's ( maybe even easier) as i always did two coats at a time anyway. I have to admit, I'm impressed and have had several people comment on the finish. The effect is especially notable on the rims where I let the glaze set overnight as recommended. The rims actually shine almost like polished aluminum.
It will be interesting to see how it holds up over the summer

[ToddG]

Anybody know if Klasse can be put on without buffing the whole vehicle out?
I just waxed it (like 3 weeks ago) and was wondering if the Klasse will work over the existing wax.
Then I don't have to strip the fresh wax all off before trying the Klasse.